Countdown: One
by KJ4
Summary: And the countdown to "War of Angels" wraps up here. A lot of crazy things happening here...but first, let's take a look at a small group of applicants to SST. And Zoe returns! Warning: this will be three chapters.
1. Welcome to SST

Disclaimer: Don't own Incredibles or Aberrant, Disney/Pixar own one and I'm sure White Wolf would sell me the other if I put up the cash (which I don't have).

Author's Notes: Just want to thank everyone who's stuck around and read this crazy thing. I also want to thank the Plothook crew for letting me swipe and tweak some characters. Pixfan, if you're reading this...Damon has finally shown up!

Oh...and just to warn you folks, this is not all of Countdown One. Unlike the other installments, this was a couple chapters. Why? Because it's pushing the 25,000 - 30,000 word mark, so I'm breaking it down into manageable chunks.

* * *

"_Syndrome Software & Technology...or SST as most people call it. For crying out loud, people, it's just Pine Industries reborn with a new name and look. It's run by the son of a psychotic asshole who designed weapons and killed several supers over a decade ago, just so he could play hero for himself. And now, this alleged bastard son comes out of nowhere, supposedly builds this new company on the ashes of his father's, and expects us to believe the shit he's selling about simply being a businessman. He's an obstructionist who was conveniently created by the NSA as proxy to stand against Project Utopia and their altruistic goals."_

"_Personally, I doubt he actually is the son of Buddy Pine, but hey, if he is...I think we should hunt down the whore who gave birth to the little shit and hang her for not having the smarts to get an abortion."_

-The Brandi Miller Show, Air America Radio

* * *

_**Metroville, California**_

_**Syndrome Software & Technology**_

Jake Peters wasn't sure what to make of the newly renovated building. He spent several minutes straddling his motorcycle and studying the building. Before that, he had swung by his apartment and printed off a resume'. He had debated going to an Internet cafe and e-mailing it, but decided against it. He got the impression his mysterious employer wanted him to get to SST as soon as possible.

So here he was, checking out what had once been a middle school. He noticed that the large glassed in atrium that made up the main entrance of the building was constructed of polarized photo-reactive glass. Though he was no expert at assessing the cost, he knew that kind of work alone was at least a couple million dollars.

_Oh, for crying out loud...it's a junior high school! What the hell am I doing here, anyway? A thirty-three year old man looking to work at a dot-com company in a post dot-com era that is run by a bunch of kids almost half my age._

Then he saw it. He normally wouldn't have caught it, but force of habit (and experience from his past) had him checking out the windows and the gutters where he saw several strategically placed mini-cameras. He then turned and checked the various light posts in the parking lot and even some along the street that led to the SST parking lot. Sure enough, he could make out the tiny devices.

_Damn, he must have at least a couple hundred of those out here, and those are the obvious ones._

His respect for David Flynn went up a notch for a moment before dropping back down when he realized that there were no security personnel near the entrance. He thought that was odd, especially after the incident that happened with Utopia.

_But that is why you are here...to be hired as security. But I was under the impression there would be other personnel here already. All I see is some native guy in maintenance coveralls cleaning windows._

He dismounted his motorcycle and made his way towards the entrance, then stopped as he saw a petite young woman with blond hair get out of a pick-up truck, pausing to grab...was that a hundred pound bag of coffee she just draped over her shoulder?

"Hey, Null, can you get the door?" the woman asked as she draped another bag of coffee over her other shoulder and then kicked the tailgate of her pick-up shut with ease.

"Sure thing, Ash," replied the maintenance man, who stopped what he was doing to open the door. As he opened the door, Jake noticed how the man took an almost unconscious look around the parking lot, but his gaze did linger for a second on Jake before he went back to cleaning the glass doors. An innocent looking act, but Jake was sure that the maintenance man, if he really was one, was watching him via a reflection on the polarized glass.

_Okay..maybe they're not as lax as I thought._

His suspicions were confirmed when he reached the front door and the maintenance man dropped his window squeegee which landed in front of Jake's feet.

"Oh, sorry about that," said the man.

_Somehow I doubt that,_ Jake thought. He studied the man the young woman had called Null. Despite his youth, the kid moved like a combat veteran.

_But that's not possible, he's too young to have served in military...at least not long enough to act that way. And the way he's packing that piece in that hidden shoulder holster, he's too accustomed to it. Maybe he has some sort of gang affiliation, but that wouldn't fit the kind of profile for people this Flynn would hire on._

"No problem," he said giving the younger man an easy grin as he pulled a folder out of his coat. "I'm here to drop off a resume' for the security opening you have here."

"Among other things," the other man chuckled. "Sorry, didn't mean to say that out loud."

_That's bullshit and you know it, kid. _Jake smiled back at him. Despite the danger the young man presented, he actually found himself liking this kid. "I take it there are other openings."

"Yeah, you might as well head on in and join the rest of the pool."

"The pool?"

"Yeah, we got a few programmers, one engineer, and...well, not sure what Miss Graves does, but she got a call-back. You're probably the first applicant we got for the security post." The man paused and studied Jake for a moment, it was now obvious that he was checking Jake out and sizing him up. After another moment, he extended his hand. "I'm Null, by the way."

"Jake Peters." Jake shook the other man's hand, but he knew that how he reacted would determine how they treated him and if he got the job. _It actually makes sense, this Null is probably one of the security detail, but he doesn't openly act like it. It allows him to freely move about without people paying too much attention to him._ "So tell me, Null, what exactly is your title around here?"

"Well, it depends," Null said. He then pulled a small piece of fabric with a Velcro back out of a pocket and put it above the front left pocket on his coveralls. "According to this," he said pointing to the small patch with the SST logo in the background, "I'm maintenance."

"Among other things?" Jake asked innocently.

Null laughed, but Jake could see the cautious look in the man's eyes. "Something like that." He opened the door and gestured for Jake to enter. "So tell me, Mr. Peters, what made you want to take a job that involves babysitting a bunch of mostly super-powered mega-geniuses?" he asked as he followed Jake inside the building.

"Well, I've been working several years as a contract body guard for various celebrities and the occasional politician...holy shit..." Jake stopped dead in his tracks when he got a look at the building's interior.

Outside, it still mostly resembled the school building, but standing here in the atrium of the building, it was hard to tell that it wasn't an office building of some sort. From the carpet all the way up to the ceiling fixtures, everything here pretty much said, "We have much more money than you, but we're not flaunting it, just letting you know."

"Impressive, isn't it?" Null asked as he walked by him.

Jake nodded, but didn't say anything. Already, he was spotting several carefully hidden surveillance cameras and other security measures. _Just how much money does this Flynn have?_

Null gestured to the desk in front. "Receptionist's desk," he said, before motioning past it and around a corner....to reveal as close as one could to having a Starbucks short of buying into the franchise. "Employee lounge and coffee shop. We stock everything purely based on employee request, so if enough people want us to start stocking turkey sandwiches, then that gets added. David's got one or two more spots to fill in there, so staffing isn't a problem." He pointed down the hallway past the coffee shop. "Restrooms and reinforced workshops. Explosions are normal, screaming isn't, unless Zoe lit someone on fire again, in which case just be ready with an extinguisher and some burn ointment." He then pointed the other way. "More of the same plus storerooms, same deal."

"Whoa, wait, hold up, who's Zoe, and why would she set someone on fire?" Jake asked, then he smiled. "Oh, I get it, a joke, right?"

Null wasn't smiling. "Trust me, when you meet Zoe, you'll understand...though we haven't seen her for a few weeks since the incident with the Utopia team."

"Yeah," rumbled a voice from behind them. "It's been nice and quiet...but boring."

Jake turned around and almost did a double-take at what he saw. A ten foot tall rocky monstrosity wearing goggles and an over-sized white lab coat stood there. "Damn...you one of the other security guards?"

The rock-monster looked at him for a moment and shook his head. "Me? No way, man. I suck at combat."

Null cleared his throat before he made the introduction. "Larry, this is Jake Peters, he's applying for one of the security spots. Jake, meet Larry Kazinski, one of our lab guys. He finished up his degree in Physics in UCLA and is working the laser lab."

"Laser lab?" Jake couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What kind of business is this, exactly?"

"Oh, a little bit of this, a little bit of that," Larry said as he and Jake shook hands. "Video games, electronics, and other stuff." He paused for a moment and glanced in Null's direction. "He's got clearance?"

"Not yet," Null said. "He's here for an interview."

"Ah." Larry shrugged and turned back to Jake. "I'd tell you more, but that's all I can say for the moment."

"Okay." Now Jake was curious...what the hell was he getting into? "One thing, though, I noticed you're a little darker in some areas, like you've been burned recently."

Jake saw Null tense a little at that question, but Larry just laughed.

"Yeah, had a problem with someone."

"Let me guess, Zoe set you on fire?"

"Zoe? Hell no, she's cool." Then Larry paused for a moment. "Though she did set Shiro on fire, but that was an accident...I think."

"Then what happened?"

"Firewing."

"Firewing?" Jake's eyes widened as he realized who Larry was talking about. "The Firewing from project Utopia?"

"Yep."

"Ouch, I'm guessing that's like a burn on human skin."

"Pretty much, though I should be healing up pretty soon." Larry then looked over at the cafe. "Well, it's been fun, but I've gotta' grab my coffee and get back to work."

Jake watched the rock monster walk away, shaking his head in disbelief. "That's one of your lab guys?"

"Yep, graduated from college at twenty and almost took a job with NASA," Null said. "But he didn't like the idea of Utopia watchdogs looking over his shoulder. You should see him when he's not in his rock form...scrawny little kid."

"So he takes the rock form to look intimidating?"

"Nope, he's using it because the burns don't hurt as bad when he heals. He's a scarred mess right now and can barely move in his human form. Hell, if he was powered down, he'd probably be loaded up on painkillers and sedatives."

Jake winced at that thought. "So he's going to stay this way until he heals up?"

"The docs say it will be a couple more weeks. He's still in pain though, just not as much." Then Null smiled. "Although, at the moment, pain is not really bothering him, especially with that kind of distraction."

Jake followed Null's gaze and saw Larry standing in front of the cafe counter, watching the blond haired girl as she fixed his drink. "I take it he's sweet on her."

"Yep." Null shook his head. "The sad part is, Larry has no problem facing off against bullies or getting in a fight, but when it comes to girls...well, he's still inept. The price of being a mega-geek, I guess."

"Isn't everyone here a mega-geek?"

"Not exactly," Null said. He then led Jake to corner of the atrium that had several comfortable chairs arranged in a semi-circle in front of a flat-screen television sitting on a wall. "Now, just sit here, kick back, and relax here with the others. If you want anything, you know where the cafe is, and don't worry about paying, it's on the house until you get hired. Anyway, I need to get back to my janitorial stuff."

"Wait, hold up a second." Jake's curiosity was really starting to get the better of him. "Seriously, what is it that you really do around here?"

"Honestly?" Null gave him a big grin. "I'm really not sure what my job title is." Then he turned and walked away, humming away to some song as he headed towards an elevator.

Jake shook his head as he sat down in one of the chairs.

_Damn, this is just too weird._

There were three others sitting there. A tall dark-haired woman in her mid-twenties wearing a business suit was reading something on the text screen of her cell-phone. Next to her sat a black man in his early twenties, his hair tightly braided in cornrows and tied back in a ponytail, reading the latest copy of Popular Mechanics. A few seats down, another young woman with brown hair was using a remote to flip through the various channels on the television. He took a seat somewhere between the younger woman and the other black man. "Hey," he said in greeting.

"Hello," said the woman reading her cell-phone, barely giving Jake a glance. "Sorry for being rude, but my cousin is about to make a stupid mistake and I'm trying to prevent that before he closes the deal." She tapped a few more keys and then closed the phone. "Okay, that's all the help I'm giving him, if he can't take care of it from there, then my father will can his ass." She extended her hand to Jake. "Camille Blevins."

"Jake Peters," he said, shaking her hand. "I'm here for security. You?"

"Programming and Marketing. So, out of curiosity, did Flynn e-mail you too?"

"Nope, found out through other sources." He gave her one of his more friendly smiles. "Was told they needed trained security personnel and I figured a large menacing black man with security experience would probably fit the bill."

"Isn't that kind of stereotyping?" asked the girl flipping through the channels, Jake figured her to be in her late teens, maybe twenty.

"Nah," said the young black man who looked up from his magazine. "He doesn't have that shaved-head/Morpheus look going for him." He then gave Jake a mock salute before leaning forward to shake his hand. "Damon Best."

"So, I take it you got e-mailed by the mysterious Mr. Flynn?"

Damon shook his head. "Actually, no, a friend of mine works here and she invited me to check it out."

"So what do you do exactly?" Jake asked. "If you don't mind me asking."

"Not at all," replied Damon as he set the magazine down. "I was an engineering student at Cal-Tech until about a year ago. Got involved with a job that actually paid me much more than any job I could land after graduation."

"What kind of job?"

"Underwater salvage and construction."

"Stuff like shipwrecks, oil-rigs, and other stuff like that?"

"Yeah, though it took me awhile to get this to work underwater." Damon raised a finger and a concentrated short jet of blue flame erupted from it. "I got it down to where I can go at least three hours before I have to surface and 'recharge'. Spares me the trouble of having to carry that extra gear."

"I'll say." Jake then turned his attention to the girl still flipping through channels. "So what's your story?"

"Not much of one," the girl replied. "I'm just a working college student who answered an ad. I'm Suzzanah, by the way, Suzzanah Graves."

"Not to put a damper on things," Camille said, leaning forward in her chair and lowering her voice so only Jake and the others could hear her, "but isn't anyone curious at the fact that the company we're applying to is run by a kid right out of high-school."

"Yeah," said a new voice that...came from above them?

All four of them looked up to see scaly reptilian creature with wings hanging upside down from one of the overhead light fixtures and tapping away on a palm-pilot. It looked like a cross between an iguana and a gargoyle wearing blue jeans and a black t-shirt with slits in the back for his tail and wings.

"It is kind of creepy, a kid who who is only a couple years younger than I am is heir to a vast fortune, a mega-genius, and is on Utopia's hit list being my boss. Really scary shit." Then the creature uncurled his tail and his clawed toes from the light, flipping in mid-air before landing in front of them. He gave them a smile, his white teeth gleaming. "Until you get the paycheck. Kind of hard to hate a boss who starts you out at sixty-grand a year."

"Does that mean you get paid to eavesdrop on us?" Camille asked, annoyed at the fact she hadn't noticed the creature.

"Nah, I tend to hang out here when I need to think and get away from squinting at the monitor in my office." The creature gave her a grin and extended his hand to her which she hesitantly took, not out of fear, but to avoid getting her hand cut by his talons. "I'm Shiro Murikami, by the way...but everyone calls me 'Grymlyn'."

"That's kind of a derogatory term," Suzzanah said.

"Not really, they were calling me that before I erupted."

"Really, why?" asked Damon Best.

"It's the name of my character from World of Warcraft."

That got a laugh from everyone, even Jake, who realized something else. "Wait," he said. "Are you the 'Shiro' who got lit on fire by Zoe."

At the mention of Zoe's name, Shiro suddenly shuddered and nervously looked around. "Where is she?"

"Whoa, calm down, she's not here." Jake couldn't suppress his smile. "And what's the deal anyway? I was talking to the rock-guy and he said she was cool."

"Cool?" hissed Shiro before shuddering in terror again. "She needs to be locked up, she's a menace," he cried out. "She may look sweet and innocent, but she is chaos unleashed!" He suddenly lunged forward, his hands grabbing Jake by the front of his jacket and sounding even more frantic. "Chaos, I tell you, pure chaos and destruction unleashed!"

"Okay, that's enough, Shiro," Null said, misting into existence and gently putting a hand on Shiro's shoulder. In his other hand, he held a brown prescription bottle. "I think it's time you took some more of your meds, doctor's orders."

Shiro released his grip on Jake's jacket. "S-sorry," he stammered. "It's just...Zoe...she's...she's..."

"Yes, yes, she's chaos unleashed," Null said, gently leading the creature away from the group and handing him the brown bottle. "Here's your medicine...head over to the cafe and Ash will fix you up with something to wash them down with, alright?"

"Yes, yes...of course...meds...and coffee," Shiro said, mostly to himself as he started to make his way towards the cafe. "Meds...coffee...beware the Zoe...the Zoe...the Pink Streak of dooooooom."

Null shook his head and smiled at the others. "Don't worry about him," he assured them. "He's really a level-headed guy, just don't mention Zoe around him...he's still trying to recover from that."

It was Damon who spoke up first. "Okay, first off, who, or what, is Zoe?"

"And why did she set him on fire?" Jake added.

"Oh, it's nothing really," Null said, rolling his eyes. "Shiro likes to play practical jokes sometimes and thought it would be cool to steal Zoe's mocha smoothie and play 'Keep Away' with it." He sadly shook his head. "He forgot about that one rule David insisted we all follow: Do not get between Zoe and her caffeine, especially if she happens to be carrying an experimental ionized plasma-launcher."

"I don't think I like where this is headed," Camille said, "if an ionized plasma-launcher is exactly what it sounds like it might be."

"Yep, and Zoe chased after him, firing as she went...it was her first mocha of the day, and she's usually cranky." Null smiled at them again clasped his hands together. "Anyway, I just want to inform you that David will be talking to you shortly. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need go mop an office or something."

He waved at them and "misted" away again.

"I can't believe we're being shown around by a janitor," Suzzanah said as she went back to surfing the channels.

"I don't believe he's actually a janitor," said Camille. She then looked over in the direction of the cafe. "Just like I don't believe the lady working the espresso stand is just a wage-slave."

"Caught that too, didn't you?" Jake asked her. "Was that before or after she had those hundred pound bags of coffee beans draped over her shoulders?"

"Actually, it was when she lifted the entire espresso machine with one hand to clean under it that made me suspicious."

"Do you think everyone here's a nova?" Suzzanah asked, finally giving up and tossing the remote aside into an empty chair. "Because I don't think I've seen anyone that's normal."

"Seems that way, doesn't it," Damon offered, looking out at the main lobby entrance and then getting up out of his chair. "Maybe we should ask someone who would know."

"Where are you going?"

Damon ignored Suzzanah's question. Jake watched as the younger man walked towards the entrance.

"Hey, Vi!"

* * * * *

Violet Parr had seen many strange things in her young life. By the age of twenty-one, she had faced off against various criminal master-minds, crazed megalomaniacs, and countless legions of low and non-powered criminals since the "ban" on supers had been lifted. Then again, after the destruction of the Galatea Space Station, and the "eruptions" of super-powered novas around the world, it was obvious that such a "ban" would be impossible to enforce. In the last eight years, she had seen all sorts of things...some strange, some horrifying, and some just outright weird.

But nothing could prepare her for the two strange things she was about to witness at Syndrome Software and Technology. Although, it could also be argued that the word "strange" was relative when it came to her job at SST. As she entered the lobby of the main building that Thursday morning, she waved at the ten foot tall rock creature wearing goggles and a white lab-coat while carrying an over-sized clip board.

"Hi, Larry," she greeted the monster as she walked by him. "How are the burns?"

"Almost healed up," Larry Kazinski replied. "Staying in 'rock-mode' until they're gone. They look a lot worse when I'm normal."

"I'll bet," Violet said with a sympathetic wince.

"On the other hand," Larry said, his stone face breaking into a toothy grin, "I might risk shifting back if I can get a little scarring out of it."

"Why?"

"Because some chicks dig scars," Larry chuckled as he gestured at the cute auburn-haired girl working the espresso stand located near the elevator.

Violet laughed and shook her head. "Larry...just ask her out already...jeez."

The rock-like creature frowned. "Can't do that...she doesn't do geeks....but one can dream, right?"

Before Violet could say something, Larry walked off and fell into conversation with Shiro Murakami, one of the lead programmers from SST's game division. She shook her head again, suppressing a giggle as she walked up to the espresso stand where the object of Larry's affection worked.

"Hey, Ash...when you're done with that, I'll take a peppermint mocha."

The young woman behind the espresso stand carefully placed the one hundred pound bag of coffee beans that was draped over her shoulder on the ground and smiled. "Sure thing, Vi."

At five-foot nine and drop-dead gorgeous, Ashley Winthrop probably dominated the dreams of most of the self-confessed "geeks" that worked at SST. Those who watched the XWF (a "pro-wrestling" promotion that consisted of novas) would have recognized her as the nova wrestler called Boom-Box. The skimpy outfit she wore earned her a lot of fans and she would have made a lot of money in that profession if it weren't for two things...she hated the job and her manager, through unscrupulous manipulation, took seventy-five percent of her earnings. Though she was a powerful nova, Ashley, by her own admission, wasn't the brightest bulb in the box and was pretty much treated like a useful tool or a piece of convenient eye-candy to be exploited. There were times, she had once told Violet, that she would break down and cry in the locker-room at a show and had to get a pep-talk from her manager just to convince her to go out and perform. She hadn't asked for that kind of lifestyle and would have been happy to just be a baseline and working back at her old job at Godiva's Boutique in the mall.

All that changed when David hired her to work the espresso stand and Violet wasn't sure why David even hired Ashley in the first place because she didn't seem like the kind of person who would be "SST material". The only things Ashley had going for her were that she knew how to make espresso related drinks and she had retail experience. On the other hand, Ashley's ability to pick up a truck and toss it half-way across town also came in handy. When Violet asked David why he hired "Boom Box", he simply replied: "Because she didn't deserve what was happening to her and I happened to be there."

David then proceeded to tell Violet about Ashley's background and Violet couldn't help feeling a little sorry for the girl.

"_**She's damaged goods, Vi," David had told her. "She was just some hot chick who worked at some store in the mall, got powers, and people exploited her. She lost her 'normal' life and no one asked her what she wanted."**_

_**When Violet asked David how Ashley's manager took it, he merely gave her an evil grin. "He had other problems...one of them being that he no longer existed."**_

"_**You didn't kill him, did you?" Violet asked him, concerned that David might have done something to follow in his biological father's footsteps.**_

"_**Sort of," David chuckled. "But he was still alive and breathing...he just...ceased to exist."**_

_**Realization hit Violet all of a sudden. "You didn't!"**_

"_**Yep...erased...like he was never there. Birth records, social-security, bank accounts...gone. Though the thirty million he swiped from Ashley somehow ended up in a Swiss bank account that she has access to should she ever go there."**_

"_**But why do that?"**_

"_**Like I said, Vi, Ash was damaged goods and she was being bullied." A malicious tone worked its way into David's voice. "And you know how much I hate bullies."**_

Violet shuddered slightly at that memory. Yes...she knew how much David hated bullies, so she couldn't help wondering why he didn't do anything about Dash.

"Earth to Violet!"

Violet blinked as Ashley waved a hand in front of her face. "What?" Then she saw her drink sitting on the counter in front of her. "Oh! How much do I owe you?"

"The usual three fifty-nine," Ashley said as she rang up Violet's order. "You seem a little distracted."

"Sorry," Violet said as she put a five dollar bill on the counter, "long night last night."

"Yeah, I'll say...it wouldn't happen to have anything to do with the bossman walking around with a black eye and swollen jaw this morning, would it?"

"He's mobile?"

"Define 'mobile'." A smirk tugged at the corner of Ashley's mouth. "If it means half-staggering like Jack Sparrow from 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and holding a conversation with a potted plant...then yeah, he's mobile."

"Oh no...where is he?"

"In his office...I'm thinking he took one of Nigel's painkiller concoctions again...because he was singing 'Learning to Fly' by Pink Floyd." Ashley put another drink on the counter next to Violet's mocha. "Give him this, it should level him out...I hope."

"What is it? Some experimental flavoring?"

"Nope...simple dark roast Costa Rican blend. I don't think he can handle anything else."

Violet thanked Ashley and started to make her way towards the elevator, pausing to take a sip of her peppermint mocha.

"Hey, Vi!"

Violet turned and saw the young black man approaching her. She smiled as she recognized him. "Damon!" She walked over and gave him a hug, or at least a semi-hug with a coffee in each hand. "You actually took me up on the offer?"

Damon Best shrugged, giving her his trademark lopsided grin. "Yeah, well, I get an e-mail from a old friend, offering me a job working for the son of her family's worst enemy...it got my attention."

"I'm surprised Penny let you go."

"She was concerned as well, Vi," Damon said. His smile faded slightly. "She and your mother may not be on good terms, but she still cares about you. She is your godmother after all."

"And you aren't concerned about me?"

"Always have been." His smile returned. "But I also know you're not stupid. So what's Syndrome Junior like?"

"Please don't call him that," Violet said, momentarily surprised that she was suddenly defending David. "I'm still trying to figure him out." She paused for a moment, looking at him and then the others sitting in the lounge area. "Have you been waiting long?"

"Not really, maybe an hour, though Jake just got here."

"Who's Jake?"

Damon pointed over his shoulder with his thumb, not even bothering to look back. "Jake Peters, he's the big scary black guy who's currently reading our body language and looking for any other security measures you might have in the area."

The big black man standing several feet away shook his head and chuckled.

"I take it you're here for one of the security spots," Violet said.

The man identified at Jake Peters nodded. "Yeah, I didn't have a chance to e-mail my resume'. I figured I'd drop off a hard-copy, but was told to stick around."

Violet hesitated for a moment. Though she and David had talked about hiring security personnel, she was a little wary of "unknowns" showing up, especially with the possibility of Utopia trying to infiltrate the company.

_Not to mention the fact that David hasn't been able to do a background check since Dash beat the shit out of him._

"Yo, Vi...you with us?"

Violet blinked as Damon's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Sorry, really crazy day ahead of me."

"I'll say," Damon chuckled as he looked at one of the coffee cups Violet was carrying. "What's with the two-fisted drinking of caffeine?"

"Actually, one of those is Syndrome Juni-er, I mean David's drink." Violet nervously laughed at the little slip of the tongue. "Look, I'd love to catch up, but I better get this to him before he talks to any of you."

"What, is he some sort of asshole taskmaster without his morning coffee?"

_Not exactly._ Though she was still a little suspicious of David, she didn't think consider David to be "asshole" material. Null, on the other hand...

"Actually," she finally said, "he's more like a zombie...though I heard he was talking to a potted plant earlier today." She continued towards the elevator, but looked back over her shoulder. "I'll catch up with you in a few, okay?"

* * * * *

Jake managed to stifle a chuckle at Damon who was still watching young woman scurry toward the elevator. He was also amused at Damon's crack about him studying their body language because that's exactly what he was doing. And from the way the two acted around each other, it was all too obvious there was some history there.

"So," he said as Damon walked back to him. "Ex-girlfriend?"

"Something like that," Damon replied. "And no, it wasn't an ugly break-up," he hastily added as he noticed Camille and Suzzanah looking at him with interest. "It's just that our families ran in the same circles, but there were complications and we decided it was better to stay friends. Well, that, and I didn't want her father tossing me out a window."

"Ah, overprotective father." Jake nodded in understanding. "But still, you look like you're in good shape, you obviously work out, I think you could take on some angry old man."

"Not if the angry old man in question throws you through the window and you don't land until you've traveled a couple city blocks."

"You're joking right?"

Damon didn't smile back.

"You're not joking, are you."

Damon shook his head.

"Damn, her father's a super too?"

"Yep."

Jake shook his head in disbelief. And again, for what had to be reaching the hundredth time that day, he asked himself that same repeating question: _What the hell did I walk into?_

* * * * *

Violet took the elevator to the second floor, taking another sip of her peppermint mocha as she waited for the doors to open. It was kind of awkward seeing Damon again after a year, but she was actually glad he accepted her invitation.

_I just hope we can actually work together without personal complications...shit, who am I kidding? This could easily turn into a disaster._

The doors opened and she exited the elevator. She then walked by a couple offices, nodding at various people as they greeted her. She passed by one of the vacant spaces where Null was mopping the floor, singing along to the music being played on the building's PA system and using the mop as a microphone.

Violet suddenly stopped a moment after her mind registered that image.

_What the hell!?!_

She took a couple steps backwards and looked back in to the room where Null, his back to her, was singing along to Sid Vicious' version of "My Way".

"And more...much more than this...I did it.....Myyyyyyyyyyyyy Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay-" Null suddenly stopped in mid-verse when he saw Violet standing there with a big grin on her face. He immediately stood up and stopped treating the mop like a microphone. "Oh, hey, Vi...good morning!"

"Oooookaaaaaay," Violet said, trying to take in the situation. "Do I even want to know why you're wearing maintenance coveralls and mopping a floor?"

"Um...nothing better to do at the moment?" Null offered. "Besides, it's part of my job description."

"Null, officially, you don't have a job here."

"And, as I pointed out last night, I still collect a paycheck." Null then resumed mopping the floor. "Might as well do something around here to earn it."

"Okay, you and I really need to talk about your past."

"No...we don't."

"Yes, we do."

"No, we don't."

"Do."

"Don't."

"Do."

Null shook his head and sighed in resignation. "Fine," he said. "We'll talk about my past. I met David about a year ago, we got into some trouble, but we managed to survive it. End of story."

"What kind of trouble?" Violet asked.

"Sorry, we only agreed to talk about my past. We did, but you didn't say we were talking about trouble."

"Dammit, Null, you can't do that!"

"Okay, fine...tell you what...give me that coffee and maybe I'll talk."

"That's David's," Violet said as she glanced over at David's office. "Ash said it would...."

That's when she realized that she was now talking to an empty room with a mop bucket in it.

"Shit," she grumbled. "How the hell does he do that?"

She walked up to the door of David's office and rapped on it with her knuckles. "Hey, David...open up...I got coffee."

"Hold on," was the response, followed by someone stumbling against the door. "Oh yeah...door knob...how do you work these again?"

Before Violet could answer, the door swung open, revealing David standing there, looking slightly disheveled, sporting a black eye and twitching slightly. "Oh...hey Vi...glad you're here, I need your help."

"David, are you okay?"

"Oh yeah, fine...fine," David said before he turned around and gestured to the small microwave oven in a cabinet that was up against one of the walls of his office. "I keep trying to change the channels on this television set and it won't work."

"David, that's a microwave." Violet handed her boss a cup of coffee. "Are you okay?" she asked again.

David took a sip of the coffee, closing his eyes for a moment to savor the black bitter taste before swallowing. "Damn...strong shit...glad I hired Ash, she really knows her coffee." He twitched again, cocking his head to one side before opening his eyes. The glazed look faded a little, his eyes becoming more lucid. "Oh, hey Violet...what can I do for you?"

"Are you okay?"

He stared at her for a moment and blinked. "You do realize you asked me that question three times in the last two minutes, right?" He took another sip of coffee and shook his head. "To answer your question, I'm fine...considering the fact your brother beat the shit out of me, I took one of Nigel's pain killers that resulted in some very bizarre dreams, and woke up half draped over a couch in one of the residential suites. And we won't even talk about some of the weird dreams I had that involved you, Zoe, leather, chains, the Michelin Tire Man and..." He stopped when he realized what he was saying. "Never mind."

"I don't want to know," Violet said, dismissing that mental image that was forming in her own mind. "By the way, I saw something really strange; Null playing janitor and doing a Sid Vicious impression."

"Ah...good to know he's doing something in his spare time," David chuckled before taking another sip of coffee. "Oh yeah...really good shit. Remind me to thank Ash for this. I think my head's starting to clear up." He walked back behind his desk and sat down. "So, Null was singing Sid Vicious? I wonder if we caught that on camera."

Violet pulled a chair up to the other side of David's desk and sat down. She sipped her peppermint mocha and paused for a moment, she and David staring awkwardly at each other. "Listen," she finally said, "I didn't know what Dash was going to do, but I know why he did it."

"Probably the whole 'son of Syndrome' thing," David smirked. "I understand."

Violet shook her head, answering David's smirk with one of her own. "You know, it's not all about you."

"It's not?" David pretended to sound hurt. "But I was so used to being the center of the universe." Then he smiled at her, but it didn't reach his eyes. "That dinner thing you talked about last night....that's it, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Violet replied. "And I spent most of last night trying to decide if I should tell you. I still can't believe it myself, and while it is 'family business', part of me thinks you have a right to know."

"But you're still not sure if it's a good idea to tell me either," David said. Violet nodded and he shrugged. "Then don't tell me, because it's really none of my business and I have other things to worry about."

Violet almost choked on her mocha. "What? You don't want to know?"

"Of course I want to know, Vi...but remember what I told you back when I got the Mustang? There's bad blood between your family and me. Though I had nothing to do with that, it's going to take time to build up trust." David smiled at her again. "And I think we're getting there, since you admitted that we are 'sort of' friends."

"You're going to keep using that term, aren't you?"

David's smile grew wider. He gave her a shrug and took another sip of his coffee. "Only for a little while...until I get tired of it and actually consider you a friend."

"Does that mean you'll tell me what Null does around here?"

David arched an eyebrow at that question, his brow furrowed as he became lost in thought for a moment. "Well, now that you mention it...I really don't know what he does around here. Although, according to you, he does janitorial work...didn't realize that was part of his job description."

"He's not on the payroll."

"Actually, he is...check under the department for 'Miscellaneous Services'...paycheck issued to one Luigi Vampa."

"That's not a real name, David...that's a character out of 'The Count of Monte Cristo'."

David blinked in surprise. "Wow, you read Dumas? You're more well read than I thought."

"Wasn't aware that you read his works either."

"Hey, anything that has intricate plots of revenge and the bad guys getting screwed over...you know I'm going to read it." Then David gave her a guilty look. "Although," he admitted, "I prefer watching the movies."

"So what does Null do around here, exactly?"

"Like I said...not really sure what he does and I really don't care. After all, his most recent job was to keep tabs on your father."

"What!?!" Violet almost screeched. "You have him spying on my dad?"

"Spying is such an ugly word...that's what Utopia was doing. Null simply discouraged the Utopia operatives monitoring your family. I mean...for crying out loud, Vi, they had guys following every one one of you. They had a couple people at Metroville High monitoring Dash, one agent was watching your mother, another was following your dad, a few more were masquerading as staffers at Jack's school, and they had one pervert who enjoyed doing long nights parked outside your dorm...and you don't want to know what kind of imaging equipment he was using." A now familiar malicious gleam formed in David's eyes. "That agent is currently in an ICU at Metroville General. I'm expecting Fox News or CTV to air that little story in the next couple days...I'm sure the parents of the girls who live at that dorm are going to love hearing that a Utopia agent was using advanced equipment to spy on the residents. Oh...and don't worry...the footage he had of you has been removed and destroyed."

"Do I want to know how he ended up in the hospital?"

David shook his head. "No...not really, though I wouldn't have wanted to be in that van when it suddenly flipped over like that before slamming into a tree....or did the van flip over when the tree slammed into it? Really not sure...though in the tree's defense, the van must have appeared dangerous."

That comment sent a shudder down Violet's spine. Though she was already aware of what David had done to Kari in the hospital, he was now admitting to her that Null had been watching her family and been dealing with the Utopia agents that were spying on them. While part of her was horrified at that revelation, another part of her felt a little grateful that David was watching out for them...albeit in a borderline psychotic way.

_Then again, _she thought to herself, _this is a group that went out of their way to target Zoe, Jack, and me. _

"About Utopia," she finally said. "I know they've done some questionable things and I have no love for them...but what did they do to you?"

That haunted look returned to David's eyes again. "It's not what they did to me, but to others," he replied. "Utopia, or to be more precise, the people running it, did some ugly things. As for my personal beef with them...you got it backwards. I did something they didn't like."

"What did you do?" Violet didn't want to sound too curious, but she had the feeling that David was letting her in on something. "What could you have possibly done to piss off an international organization?"

"I woke up."

Before Violet could ask what David meant by that, there was a rapping on the office door that was followed by the door flying open and blur of plaid fabric and pink hair whirling into the room before coalescing into a human form next to Violet.

"David,David,David. Yougotta'helpme! Momanddadhavegonecrazy. They'retryingtostepfordizeme! Help,help,help!"

"Zoe?" David asked, blinking at the strange apparition that formed in front of him. "What the hell!?!"

Violet tried not to laugh, but failed. "Okay," she giggled as she looked at Zoe. "That's the second strangest thing I've seen today."

Zoe turned and frowned at her. "It's not funny!" she snarled, tugging at the navy blue suit jacket that went well with the blue-plaid pattern of the skirt that went past her knees. "Look at me," she said, her voice reverting to normal speed. "They're making me attend that damn school Mom teaches at. They have uniforms...UNIFORMS, David! I have to wear this all the time! I look like...like...like..."

"Like 'Punk Rock Boarding School Barbie'?" Violet offered.

Zoe glared at Violet for a moment before glancing down at her outfit and starting to sniffle. "Yeah," she sobbed, her shoulders sagging in defeat, "I do!"

"Hey, I don't mind," David said from the other side of the desk. Then he saw Zoe's patented _"Death Glare of Doom"_. "Oh, sorry...did I say that out loud?"

Before he could react, Zoe was suddenly next to him and slapping him on the back of the head.

"Ow! Zoe!"

"That's not funny, David!" Then Zoe's eyes widened when she noticed David's face. "Your face...what happened?"

"Oh...it's nothing," David laughed. "Null and I were practicing hand-to-hand...and he sports a nasty left cross."

Violet was about to speak up and tell the truth, but caught the slight shake of David's head and decided to keep quiet about what really happened.

"Null did this?" Zoe asked. "You went hand to hand with Null? Do have a death wish?" She smacked him again on the side of the head and then hugged him.

"Ow...Zoe, it was just a training accident," David assured her. He then decided to try a different tactic. "Um, Zoe...no offense, not that I don't enjoy your new look...but don't you think you can switch to something...normal?"

Zoe pulled away and looked down at her outfit. "You're right...I should change, I think have some clothes upstairs."

She disappeared in a blur that swirled once around the desk before leaving the office. David and Violet stared at each other for a moment before turning their combined attention to the two coffee cups on the table.

"David...you don't think..."

David nodded as he reached forward and turned his coffee cup upside down, unsurprised that it was empty. "Yep...I think she drank them both."

Violet turned her own cup upside down. "You're right...empty. By the way, why didn't you tell her?"

"Vi, you know how impulsive Zoe is. Better to let her think this was an accident. Otherwise, she might do something stupid."

"Like what?"

David didn't answer, he only shuddered in response.

"Okay, fine," she said. "Let's move on to the next topic of the day. You got four prospective new-hires downstairs waiting to talk to you."

"Four?" David asked. "I thought we had three. Blevins, Graves, and Frozone's nephew that you secretly recruited behind my back."

"I didn't secretly recruit him," Violet snapped at him. "You said I could have say in who we hire on if I felt they were qualified."

David smirked at her, his eyes looking like they were blindly focusing on something else, a sign that he was mentally linking to the facility's network. "Actually, from what I'm looking at in this file, I'm surprised he didn't apply with the initial group...and he's wasting his talent with Sefton Salvaging...wait...Penny Sefton, wasn't she your mother's side-"

"Don't bring that up," Violet half-growled, before her voice softened. "Mom and Aunt Penny...they had a disagreement. It happened around the time the government clamped down and forced most of the supers into retirement."

David arched an eyebrow. "Oh? Is there a deep dark secret in the Parr family closet," he asked before taking another sip of his coffee. Then he noticed glare on Violet's face. "Whoa...I was joking."

An invisible force smacked David on the back of the head.

"Ow! Dammit, Vi!"

Violet grinned at him. "Behave, or I'll hit lower next time," she said. Then the grin faded as she talked about the other applicants. "Blevins still thinks you're an immature brat, but I think she's here because of the salary you offered. I'm not sure why you called Graves back, though. High school graduate, sophomore at college, still has no clue what she's going to to major in."

"Hey, I haven't gone to college, and I'm doing well."

"Well not everyone is a mega-brain like you, Mr. Soccer Geek-Jock."

"Hey, we agreed not talk about that."

"No, you agreed not to bring it up, I didn't."

David shook his head. "Oh god...you're almost as bad as Zoe."

"Oh, believe me," Violet giggled...a sound that chilled David to the bone. "I can do worse, I've actually worked with you these last few weeks."

"And yet you're still here," David shot back with a smile of his own. "So I must be doing something right. So, what can you tell me about our mysterious fourth guest?"

"All I got was a name. Jake Peters, at least that's what Damon told me." Violet watched David's eyes seem to un-focus for a moment, as if he were looking at something that wasn't there, another sign that he was linked to the building's security system and probably the net as well.

_Though I've heard him mention that he is always linked in some way._

"Well, that's interesting," David said, blinking a couple times before cutting his connection and looking at Violet. "Just did a facial recognition scan from the surveillance cameras and went through a couple databases. It turns out that Mr. Peters didn't exist until a few years ago."

"A Utopia plant?"

David shook his head. "No, but his background is probably one of the best 'ghost-jobs' I've seen, though the digital fingerprints have NSA all over them."

"NSA, you think Dicker sent him?"

David smirked at her. "Don't you think that would be a little overkill, Vi? I mean, he already has you watching me. No...this is something else."

"Should I have Null get rid of him."

"Nah, I think we'll keep him around, see what his story is. Besides, according to some of the other stuff I'm digging up, he is experienced in body-guard and security work."

"But he's not Utopia?"

"No, and that bothers me. Because if he was Utopia, we'd just toss his ass out the door. But since we don't know, we'll have to keep him around and figure out what his game is."

* * * * *

Thankfully, Zoe managed to find a pair of jeans, her spare sneakers, and stole one of David's t-shirts. After looking at herself in the mirror and satisfied that she didn't look like a Stepford child anymore, she headed downstairs where Ashley Winthrop was filling up a sixty-four ounce thermal mug with Zoe's favorite drink.

"Hi Zoe." Ashley said. "Someone here missed you." Ashley whistled and an Australian shepherd that was curled up underneath a table behind the espresso stand woke up and started barking before running to Zoe.

"Brody!" Zoe knelt down and began scratching her dog behind the ears. After a few seconds, she stood back up. "Thanks for looking after him, Ash."

"No problem, kiddo," Ashley said as she handed Zoe the large mug. "Here you go...a Heath Bar Latte with eight shots."

Zoe took a long pull off the latte, her eyes momentarily rolling to the back of her head as she savored the taste. "Ooooooh...that's good."

Ashley shook her head and laughed. "Okay, the relationship you have with your coffee...that's just disturbing."

"I'm sorry," Zoe said before taking another sip. "It's just that when someone puts a big one right in front of me...I just get this urge and go weak in the knees...and I all I can think of is wrapping my lips around it and sucking that sweet smooth nectar down with-"

She stopped in mid-sentence when she realized that all the noise in the background stopped. She looked around and noticed that all the other patrons of the espresso bar had stopped what they were doing, as did the various bystanders in the lobby...and they were all looking at her with intense interest as they were waiting for her to continue speaking.

About a block away, Null was walking down the sidewalk and suddenly stopped, looking up in the air at something that wasn't visible to the human eye. "Okay...something really cool just happened."

Back in the lobby of SST, Zoe turned back to Ashley. "So how much do I owe you?"

There was a collective groan from all the people in the lobby, disappointed that Zoe was not going to continue her speech, and they went back to what they were doing.

Ashley managed to stifle her laughter. "That'll be seven dollars, Zoe."

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing."

"Okay," Zoe said. "Tell David I'll be in my little office. C'mon Brody!"

The Australian shepherd let out a playful bark and obediently followed his mistress. Ashley waited until she was certain Zoe was gone before letting loose. There were tears in her eyes from laughing so hard and she found herself almost gasping for air.

That's when Null came through the front doors. He looked around the lobby for a few seconds, then looked at Ashley. "Don't tell me," he said. "I missed it, didn't I?"

"Yep."

"Damn."

Ashley was still giggling as she started cleaning her espresso machine while Null walked off, grumbling in disappointment.

Zoe entered her office, sipping her latte as she sat down at her desk and logged on to her computer while Brody curled up by her feet. The last few weeks had been real pain in the ass for her. At first, her parents wanted her to sever all contacts with David and keep her at Avalon. It was a living hell...they made her wear a uniform, participate in classes, made her do homework...at normal speed!

She hated it and, the first chance she got, she ran away. Though it took a lot of effort, she was able to hack the computer that operated the containment field around the school. Knowing full well that she couldn't directly hack the computer without being caught, she simply added a sub-routine to the computer's programming that made it perform a routine systems diagnostic, a random event that consisted of the computer shutting the field down for about thirty seconds. The moment the field went down, she bolted and made her way to SST. She knew that her parents would come looking for her, but that didn't matter.

Of course there was going to be a confrontation, but here at SST, she had the "home court" advantage. If her parents wanted to "discuss" her future, it was going to be here...not at Avalon. In the meantime, she decided to take a look at the surveillance videos from the last couple weeks and see if anything cool happened while she was gone.

* * * * *

_**Mexico City, Mexico**_

_**Grand Phoenix Hotel**_

Buddy Pine looked around the penthouse suite of the hotel he had checked into and paused for a moment. He looked out the large windows that allowed him a view of the entire city and took a moment to savor it. He figured it would be best to do that now because he knew that the view would be very different within the next twenty-four hours.

_Then again, it's going to be even more interesting how everyone will spin it,_ he thought to himself as he grabbed himself a beer from the small fridge under the wet-bar that came with the room. He popped the top off the bottle, took a sip, and savored the taste.

_The Utopia-friendly networks will probably paint this as the work of some unknown or rogue nova...just like they're hinting at in regards to my little incident in the Indian Ocean. It's interesting that Utopia's masters must know I'm the one behind it, but they are perfectly willing to let their puppets assume that it was someone else. It kind of sucks, actually...a group like the Teragen being given credit for it, but that's okay. As far as the world's concern, Buddy Pine aka "Syndrome" is long gone...better to let them think that and be 'invisible' for the moment._

He took another pull off the bottle and then picked up the small palm-pilot off the coffee table. He opened up a couple applications which sent a coded transmission via the net to the automated system on the yacht anchored just off the shores of Acapulco. Buddy smiled as he saw a tiny window pop-up, displaying a countdown that had ten hours to go. He could imagine those modified missiles being fed targeting data as their launchers began to position them.

_It was rather nice of the Nakato to have those cruise missiles on board...I wonder what they would think of the modifications I made to them._

Again, Buddy almost felt appreciative for the Nakato while at the same time mentally berating them for being stupid enough to have left that kind of ordinance openly available to anyone...well...anyone with a high degree of intelligence and a knack for dealing with advanced technology. Okay, so not everyone had that kind of ability...but still...he couldn't believe how easy it was to get himself established so quickly.

_Stumbling across a Nakato operation that had appropriated one of my former "safe-house" locations and setting up this deal with the CMA...if I was anything at all like these fanatics I'm doing business with, I would almost claim it's God's will._

Buddy chuckled at that thought and appreciated the irony of it. Here he was, a nova, creating and selling advanced weapons to an organization dedicated to wiping out novas because they were considered "Satan's children" or whatever label those nutjobs attached to them. Then again, his super ability could simply be hidden or passed off as just being a highly intelligent weapons designer. He didn't have any blatant "super powers".

_As far as the CMA is concerned, "Gabriel" is simply a weapons designer who is at odds with what's happening in the world. Hell, I can imagine Piper or some of the other leaders preaching that I am a blessing to them...helping them carry out "The Lord's Will"._

He shook his head and chuckled at that thought. He had made up the "Gabriel" identity on the spot. He didn't want to reveal his true identity to the world...not just yet. The last thing he wanted to do was advertise to the world that Buddy Pine aka "Syndrome" had returned from the dead.

_Though it seems that Pine Industries and "Syndrome" are long forgotten...perhaps that's for the best. That ship has sailed and long sunk to the bottom of some ocean._

He looked at the other application that was running, a small drafting program that he manipulated by touching a stylus-pen to the screen. This particular file showed the schematics of his personal pet project...he wasn't sure of the initial design, but then again, this was just an early draft. Originally, he didn't care much for the concept of powered-armor in the past...it reminded him too much of some of the cheezy Japanese anime he used to watch back in his college days.

However, he did like reading the "Iron Man" comic when he was a kid, though he felt the concept of having a "powered armor" that could fit into a briefcase was very unrealistic. It took Buddy at least six suitcases to smuggle in his gear.

_Although I hear they're talking about making a live action movie...maybe I'll check that out if and when it hits theaters. I wonder if the rumors are true and Marvel comics made him a bad guy and he turned on his fellow heroes._

He tapped away at the design with the pen, bringing up a detailed blueprint of the internal-frame.

_It may look like something out of an anime, but at least it'll be functional and fit with my new persona. If I play this right, the CMA will prove a useful tool for me. But first...I need to do something that will win them over._

He looked back out the window again, looking at some of the tall skyscrapers that made up part of the city skyline, wondering which one of those would still be standing when it was over. One particular building had his interest...the gleaming white obelisk that sported the Team Tomorrow logo...the headquarters for T2M Americas. He was certain that the people of Mexico City looked at that building and Project Utopia as a symbol...a symbol of hope that had revitalized their city and would eventually do that for the rest of their country.

_Kind of sad, actually...but also kind of cool. People must see that building and Utopia as the soul and hope for their city. Project Utopia has done much to bring this place from being the cesspool of what it once was to what it is today. The "modern gods" of today have done this city good._

He minimized the drafting program, brought up the countdown again and grinned.

_Killing gods and the soul of an entire city within a day...that will look really good on the resume'._


	2. And Gabriel Blew His Horn

Disclaimer: Don't own Aberrant, don't own Incredibles. White Wolf owns the former, Pixar/Disney own the latter.

Author's notes: Sorry for the delay, got sidetracked by a new toy called Poser 8. Been goofing around and making 3d renders of some of the characters in my story. Anyway, I want to thank you all for sticking around, that includes Nullchronicler, Zarthrax, Shannon, Walker, Concoulor, the crazy and insane Plothook crew, and the other usual suspects who I might be forgetting at the moment.

Okay, just so you know, Geryon (James Booth) is a character from Aberrant, he's a faction leader in the Teragen and...well...he's something of a nova vigilante (targeting anyone who tries to harm novas). I hope I do the character justice. I've had to re-write this part a few times...tried to shorten it. I hope nobody here is a fan of T2M: Americas. It's not pretty...Buddy's a little brutal in this chapter.

I hope you like this. In the meantime, feel free to leave comments, criticisms, and the occasional threat. Feedback is always good....I guess.

* * *

_Mexico City, home of T2M Americas, has turned itself around miraculously in the past 10 years. Once an overpopulated breeding pit of poverty and violence, Mexico City has benefited greatly from the presence and investment of the novas who dwell there. Now one of the cleanest cities in North America, Mexico City also intends to revive the national economy, starting locally. It is another multicultural hub, and all but the most daft of visitors can find someone who speaks their language. In addition, the young economy-on-the-upswing has drawn a fair share of entrepreneurs who, if you can look past their awful suits and omnipresent cellphone conversations, may turn Mexico City into a metropolis of global import. Perhaps in spite of themselves._

Excerpt from Duke Rollo's _**Why Customs Officials Hate Me — The Wretched World of Contract Journalism**_

_**

* * *

**_

**Mexico City, Mexico**

**Grand Phoenix Hotel**

Buddy smiled as he finished the calibrations on the boot-jets. According to the control console on his right gauntlet, they were now properly synchronized to the booster-pack that would be attached to the back of his body armor. Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to link the pack to the HUD system in his helmet, not that it mattered...it was linked to the small control panel in his ZP gauntlets which were well protected. He spent most of the day modifying the helmet that he had purchased from a store. Granted, it was just a motorcycle helmet, but it was one of the modern ones that had a polarized visor and basic radio and cellular communication ability. It was a simple matter of re-wiring and adding a little bit of extra hardware.

_It's a pity I lost the other helmet in San Francisco, but this will do in a pinch. Besides, it's not like I'm going to be keeping this cobbled together getup. I'm only using this to conceal my identity and send a message._

He spent the next few minutes putting on the various pieces of body armor. When the last piece clicked into place, he tapped a couple buttons on the right hand gauntlet, synchronizing it with the systems of his cybernetic right arm. The HUD system momentarily displayed a status bar before confirming synchronization. It also flashed the two minute warning, informing him that the missiles would be on their way shortly.

_Okay...it's showtime! Two minutes to launch._

He was expecting to feel the thrill of anticipation as he watched the time click away, but was surprised that he experienced a sense of boredom instead.

_Then again, I've already caused a disaster of "nearly biblical proportions", killed a bunch of people, slaughtered an entire cell of Yakuza thugs, blew up an international sea-port facility, and killed a popular superteam....damn, it's been a busy week...I think I need a vacation already._

He sighed as he watched the last fifteen seconds start to tick away.

_Hmmm...where to go...where to go...Vegas sounds good._

10....9....8...7...

_Nah...better keep it local. Maybe I'll take a couple days off and just hit Santa Cruz...The Pacifica Grille is there, haven't been there in years. Really missed their bacon and grilled onion burger...damn..._

_6...5...4...._

_Now I'm hungry...I wonder if I should get something to eat._

3...2...1..0...

Suddenly, a new countdown started, twenty four minutes minutes and counting. Buddy sighed again as he watched the new countdown.

_Dammit...I really should have ordered that steak and lobster dinner._

Off the shores of Acapulco, the first of four missiles launched, a ten-foot long projectile shooting skyward. Within in the first twenty seconds, the launch had been picked up by Project Utopia, NATO, and NORAD. Utopia immediately put out a call to Team Tomorrow Americas while the US government ordered a flight of fighters and the few flight capable novas they had up in the air. It was impressive, it all happened in less than a minute. The novas of Team Tomorrow Americas that were capable, were airborne and on their way to intercept the missile that continued to gain altitude...then three other missiles were launched four minutes after the first missile...this time at a different trajectory. Unlike the first missile, they were heading for land-based targets.

The first missile, traveling much faster than the others, had actually reached the lower stratosphere in those four minutes before detonating. To the two novas known as Sliptream and Skyburn...it was almost a disappointment. They were expecting some sort of explosion, but all they saw was what appeared to be a blue flash, as if someone had set off a giant flash bulb from an over-sized camera

Then they saw it...a blue ring of energy that suddenly expanded across the sky, bathing the area with an eerie blue glow. Neither of them realized what was happening, only that their communications gear suddenly stopped working.

To the people stationed at the monitoring posts of NORAD and Project Utopia, they suddenly lost all satellite feed for the area over a large portion of Mexico and part of California. Instead of raw data, it was a blue haze on the screen and static over the audio channels. NORAD immediately ordered the aircraft that had just scrambled to pull back.

To the people of Mexico city, all forms of electronic and digital communications suddenly went off line. Internet users lost their connections, cell-phones lost their signals,various networks went down...unable to communicate, Mexico City and the surrounding area went silent.

Back in his hotel room, Buddy watched the countdown continue on, pausing momentarily to look at the window and watch the crowded streets become even more crowded as people rushed out into the streets to find out what was going on. He could also hear the sound of sirens in the distance and could see a couple accidents in a nearby intersection.

_Yep...traffic signal network went down. It's absolute chaos out there....damn...I really should have gotten something to eat before this._

He looked at the HUD again and started humming the Imperial Death March from Star Wars. The first missile had obviously detonated, the little "quantum dispersion wave" worked like a nice little EMP blast crippling just about everything that was electronic and wasn't properly shielded by a zero-point energy field...like the one generated by his gauntlets. He took a few moments to check out the various weapons he would be using. The primary plasma rifle he would be carrying was something that he had to grudgingly give the Nakato some credit for...they had managed to build up a decent cooling system compared to his original design, but the discharge coils had to be re-calibrated to work at the original setting he had designed them for. The same could be said about the light rail-based "needle-gun" mounted on his left shoulder...they didn't use the titanium/duralloy based ammunition he had designed for the weapon, but the eumetal ammo would do...for now.

_Then again, Eumetal and Eufibre are supposedly more "environment friendly"...shit...I really wish people would get off the political correctness band wagon. On the other hand, "going green" has got to be the best quick get-rich scam the world governments have come up with._

A grim smile crept across Buddy's face.

_And I guess I'm doing my part...a lot of people won't be leaving "carbon footprints" after tonight. Hell...I've gotten rid of a lot of "carbon footprints" this week. And the bodies ARE biodegradable. I should get a Nobel prize for my efforts._

He couldn't help chuckling at that thought, then he saw something outside the window that caught his attention. Two novas were descending from the sky towards the T2M building. He brought the HUD targeting system up, zooming in on the front of the building. Four more novas could be seen stepping out of the entrance of the building while another one with wings flew out of an opening at the top.

_Yep...there we go...all seven of them._

He then turned his attention to the crowded streets and the people looking up in the sky, pointing at the weird blue haze up in the atmosphere that seemed to pulsate in various patterns not unlike the famous "Northern Lights" of the Aurora Borealis.

_Except my light-show is going to involve more audience participation,_ Buddy smirked to himself. The "pupil-lock" system he rigged up,allowed him to bring up targeting reticles which he used to lock on various members of Team Tomorrow. Upon locking on a target, the HUD immediately brought up summarized info he had hacked from the T2M: Americas tower.

_**Target – Skyburn**_

_**Name – Mackenzie Rhodes**_

_**Designation – Offensive Operations**_

_**Known Powers – Elemental Based, Fire...Flight**_

_**Target – Slipstream**_

_**Name - Shayla MacTaggert**_

_**Designation – Offensive Operations, Reconnaissance **_

_**Known Powers – Supersonic Flight, Air manipulation**_

_Hmm...those would be the two idiots who were capable of making it to the stratosphere...what about the third flyer?_

_**Target - Feral**_

_**Name - Manuella Perez**_

_**Designation – Offensive Operations, Infiltration**_

_**Known Powers – Enhanced Reflexes, Enhanced Senses, Claws, Limited Regenerative ability**_

_Oh goody, the resident hot "furry feline" chick...damn...not bad measurements though._

_**Target – Sea Hawk**_

_**Name – David Markham**_

_**Designation – Secondary Team Leader, T2M: Americas**_

_**Known Powers- Limited Flight (winged), Enhanced Sight, Enhanced Strength, Durability**_

_Ah, there's the other flyer. Hmm..this guy could be trouble. According to his main bio, he was former military, a Naval Academy graduate and former S.E.A.L...he's probably more of a threat than the actual team leader. Which brings me to..._

_**Target – Gila**_

_**Name - Ricardo Montoya-Bernal**_

_**Designation – Team Leader, T2M: Americas**_

_**Known Powers – Mega Strength, Mega Dexterity**_

_Great, they put a former masked wrestler from the XWF in charge of a T2M cell...from what I read of this guy, he's an arrogant prick and full of himself. I think I'll save him for last._

_**Target – Stinger**_

_**Name – Lisa Tyrell**_

_**Designation – Intelligence, offensive operations**_

_**Known Powers – Enhanced Strength, Enhanced Reflexes, Light-bending Camouflage, Adhesion**_

_That must be the babe with long brown hair tied back in a pony-tail...yep, she just went "invisible" and is stalking her way to a vantage point. Not going to help you, bitch, I can detect your body-heat and quantum signature just fine._

_**Target – Portal**_

_**Name – Melissanda Estevez**_

_**Designation – Reconnaissance, Logistics**_

_**Known Powers – Enhanced Reflexes, Teleportation**_

_Ah yes...the teleporter. Definitely the most dangerous out of the group._

He smiled as the targeting window for the rail-launcher flashed into existence.

_But easily taken care of._

_**Target Lock – Portal.**_

Buddy didn't even flinch as the projectiles from the rail launcher blasted through the glass of the windows, but he did chuckle as he watched Melissanda Estevez' head suddenly explode, splattering two of her teammates with skull fragments, blood, and brain matter.

_One down...now let the show begin._

With a wild cry he jumped through the window of his hotel room, his boot-jets kicking on after he had fallen several floors. He thumbed on the external speakers to address the bystanders below who were pointing up at him.

"Pay no heed, people," he said. "It'll be all over soon."

_And those of you who survive will never forget this day._

_**Plasma Rifle Calibrated...Targeting.**_

_**Quantum Signature – Stinger – Target Locked**_

A large ball of energy erupted from the barrel of the plasma rifle, slamming into the wall of a building, momentarily revealing the silhouette of a woman trying to jump clear before it was consumed by the expanding fireball that blew out the entire third floor of the building. Buddy doubted Stinger even knew what hit her or even had time to scream as she disintegrated.

_Two down, five to go._

_

* * *

_

Mexico City had become crown jewel for Project Utopia, proof that a benevolent organization could turn a city on the brink of collapse and infested by corruption into a beacon of what the rest of the world could aspire to...so long as they followed the Utopia ideal.

James Booth hated Mexico City, it represented one of the major things he hated about Utopia, and if he had his way, he wouldn't be here. On the other hand, Mexico City was relatively easy to infiltrate and one of the last places the international authorities would look for him. After all, when he was powered up, he was the Teragen monstrosity known as Geryon, nova terrorist and a regular resident on most law enforcement agencies' top ten list.

However, that was Geryon they were hunting, not James Booth, who could pass as a baseline human. Not only that, no one would think to look for Geryon in a Project Utopia stronghold. But it wasn't James' intention to lie low, that was just a fringe benefit. He was actually following up on a lead that Synapse, another member of the Teragen, had given him. Though James didn't care much for Synapse's cocky attitude, he had to admit the boy was one hell of an asset when it came to the frontier of cyberspace.

Apparently, Synapse had stumbled across a highly encrypted teleconference on the net. The irony was that he wouldn't have picked it up through the sea of mass communications across the net if the damn thing hadn't been so highly encrypted. It was like throwing a bloody piece of meat in a shark tank, a challenge for the quantum enhanced super-hacker to break. But even with his advanced abilities, it had proven quite the challenge and he had only been able to crack into the tail end of the digital gathering. However, it was enough to worry a lot of people.

It was a meeting of the leadership of the Church of Michael Archangel, a group of pseudo-religious fanatics, based mostly in the rural southern back country in the United States, who saw novas as being demons. When they first surfaced, the Michaelites were a laughed at, even most of the members of the Teragen, along with most of the world, dismissed these people as crazed lunatics with no real cause and not much of a threat.

People stopped six months ago when the Michaelites took down the nova hero known as the "Houston Tornado". Sure, the baselines ambushed the poor bastard, but the fact that they had done so in an organized fashion with basic tactics and crude weapons, it was obvious that the monkeys were learning very quickly. There had been talks of a few novas seeking retribution for those responsible, but targeting the known Michaelite compounds would have been a suicide mission. It also wasn't a good idea because there was a possibility of a hidden Michaelite cell waiting to strike, and an all out assault on them might draw more baselines to side with the fanatics.

James was certain there was going to be a war, that was inevitable, but he also wasn't stupid. As much as he wanted to go after those bigoted monkeys, he knew that the Teragen weren't ready for the war...not yet, at least. Too many people in the Teragen were divided over what to do, some wanted outright war, others suggested neutrality, and some even wanted to establish some sort of new status-quo with the baselines. While he didn't want to go to war right away, James wasn't stupid. It was only a matter of time before the monkeys turned on the novas and tried to control them or just outright destroy them. To him, Utopia was merely a first step in that direction, and while he didn't want to see them dead, he saw the novas working for Utopia as sell-outs and had no problem beating them to a bloody pulp.

Then the game suddenly changed.

He wasn't sure how or exactly when it changed, but he could feel that something was terribly wrong. Fate, God, or whatever was guiding this little drama decided to kick things up a notch. The first clue was the freak tsunami activity and electro-magnetic storms in the Indian Ocean that disrupted communications, sank several freighters and cruise ships, and wiped out various seaside cities and villages off the coasts of several countries. The last known body count was pushing nearly a million people. According to the world-wide media, it was a natural disaster, but he knew that was a crock of shit the moment he heard it. Utopia and various International agencies were doing their best to figure out what created that burst of quantum energy that caused so much devastation.

Actually, he was certain Utopia knew what caused it, but they were doing their best to feign ignorance with the rest of the world and were probably trying to cover any evidence that might link them to the disaster.

Then there was the attack on San Francisco a few days ago and the destruction of their resident nova super-team, the Protectors. There was no mistake about it, the novas were targeted and systematically taken out, except for one member who was seriously injured and would have died if that idiot Bomber hadn't showed up and saved her life.

At first, the Utopia controlled media tried to blame Bomber for the attack on The Protectors, but James knew that was a lie. Jean-Paul Renard, killing a super-team and blowing up a chunk of the historic San Francisco waterfront? Not likely. Renard was an adrenaline junkie, but he wasn't a cold blooded murderer, that wasn't his style. Eye witness accounts from baseline survivors of the attack cleared Bomber any wrong-doing, claiming that an unknown man wearing black body-armor, sporting some extremely high-tech weaponry, and, according to a couple witnesses, shot some sort of blue energy out his hands, was to blame.

James had planned on crashing the hospital where Renard was being held and get more information about the mysterious attacker, but a couple Elites had shown up to kill Renard, who managed to escape and disappear. Despite his opinion about Renard, he was starting to admire the punk's ability to survive and escape. However, with Renard on the run, his lead on who attacked San Francisco was gone...until Synapse showed him some interesting data he intercepted.

Apparently, a few days before the attack on San Francisco, someone had killed a group of Nakato in British Columbia, seized their assets, and blew up a large chunk of the shipping port facility in Vancouver. According to witnesses, they saw what appeared to be a miniature "lightning storm of cackling blue energy" after the blast. After doing some digging through the digital records of various Nakato front companies, Synapse had learned the Nakato were smuggling in weapons from Japan to Vancouver and planning to sell them to a group of Michaelites. That little tidbit was enough to get James' interest. He had tangled with the Nakato, and he had seen some of the tech they were starting to field, stuff that could drop him. The fact that they were willing to sell their tech to the Michaelites was bad news.

But the deal had fallen through. Someone had killed the Nakato cell before the representatives of the Michaelites even arrived. However, someone calling himself "Gabriel" had contacted one of the Michaelite compounds and informed them that he would like to continue the business arrangement they had with the Nakato. Though the conversation was brief and sketchy, the man called Gabriel said that he would provide an 'audition' to prove himself. A day or two after that conversation, the attack on San Francisco happened, then that highly encrypted teleconference occurred. Though Synapse hadn't been able to recover the whole conversation, the last few seconds were enough: Mexico City was the next target.

And that was why James found himself in Mexico City, pretending to be a tourist on holiday. He had been there for almost two days and found himself dying of boredom. For what had to be the hundredth time, he checked in with Synapse who constantly asked him to pick some souvenirs while he was down there, joking about how he could use a giant sombrero to put on his cryo-tank where his actual body was stored. After what had become this annoying ritual of reporting in, arguing about this was a mission and not a sight-seeing tour, James had finally lost his cool and started to tell Synapse what the little net-linked nova could do with his self...or he would have if a sudden blue flash up in the heavens and something that looked like an evil twin of the naturally occurring Aurora Borealis appeared in the sky.

Then the link with Synapse went dead, the lighting in all the buildings started flickering before going out. People around him, who until that moment were lost in their own little world until their cell-phones or any other digital communication devices went out were suddenly wondering what was going on in their otherwise boring life. However, all of them, including James, looked up at the sky momentarily mesmerized by the blue haze that seemed to go on forever in the sky above the city. The sound of screeching tires and something crashing made him look around and he noticed that all the major traffic signals had gone out. He looked in the direction of the Utopia building near the city center and saw two novas coming down from the sky after obviously checking out the strange anomaly that suddenly appeared in the sky.

Even though he was expecting an attack, James did not expect anything like this. Like the baselines surrounding him and the clueless T2M nova team standing in front of their headquarters, he couldn't help being confused...until he saw Portal's head explode, spraying Gila and Sea-Hawk with blood and brain matter.

Then he heard people shout and saw them pointing at some hotel down the street. He saw a figure...in black body armor wearing some sort of jet pack and carrying a nasty looking energy weapon that he fired across the square and into an apartment building, blowing out the entire third floor and raining burning debris on the crowd.

"Bloody Hell!" he yelled as he, like everyone else, dove for cover. However, unlike the rest, he didn't try scrambling for shelter when he got back on his feet. Instead, he made his way towards the battle, his body beginning to shift into its monstrous form.

* * *

"Ka-Ching!" Buddy laughed as he blew up a fuel truck with his plasma launcher. "Oh yeah, wanton destruction and chaos, gotta' love it!"

_**Target – Sea Hawk, terminated...**_

_Then again, being slammed into a fuel tanker and having it blow up on you is enough to roast most people, even a nova._

"Okay," he said, "that's three...have to admit I never roasted a winger before-HEY!!!"

Buddy managed to roll with the tackle, but lost his grip on the plasma launcher as the feline creature known as Feral knocked it away. "Monster!" she hissed, swiping her claws against his chest, actually slicing into the body armor.

"Whoa there, baby," Buddy chuckled, powering up one of the ZP gauntlets and catching Feral in a blue field. "Bad kitty."

He slammed her against a wall.

"Don't."

He sent her flying into a parked car.

"Fuck."

Then he sent her flying through the window of a restaurant.

"With."

And finally, he had the field grab her and bring down hard into the middle of the street with so much force that he could actually hear bones break from the impact.

"Daddy."

He paused to look at the fallen heroine and was actually impressed to see she was still alive, moaning softly as she tried to get up.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Timmy," Buddy said as he activated the rail-gun. "Fluffy was old, broken, and just not worth keeping around anymore." The rail gun burped once, turning Feral into hamburger as the rounds ripped her to shreds. "She had to be put down...and that makes four."

"Son of a bitch!" someone screamed. To punctuate that expletive, a wave of flame hit Buddy and actually knocked him to the ground.

He rolled with the impact, but cursed as the rail-gun was ripped off his shoulder mount. He went to reach for it, but jumped back as the weapon was melted to slag by a fireball that turned that small patch of ground into a pool of magma. He looked up and saw Skyburn floating there, Slipstream flanking him.

"Damn, boy," Buddy laughed. "Such passion, such anger, you sound really pissed...really fired up!"

"FUCK YOU!" Skyburn screamed as he fired a wave of fireballs at Buddy.

Buddy kicked up the power on the ZP gauntlets and having them generate a stronger field around his suit. However, he was getting concerned as he noticed the readings coming from the fireballs.

_Shit...he's really gone into Elemental mode. He keeps this up, he might breach my field in a few minutes. Hmmm...I wonder...how much power can he hold?_

"Well shit, son, that's a lot of quantum you're flinging out, how about a boost?" Buddy aimed his right gauntlet at Skyburn, altering the ZP energy to match Skyburn's, and fired.

Skyburn actually laughed as the energy burst hit him, but did nothing. "You're shitting me! That just powered me up, asshole!"

"I know," said Buddy as he increased the energy flow.

Skyburn's eyes widened in realization before he suddenly screamed in pain. "NO! It's too much!" He tried to release the excess energy, but something was preventing it from being discharged. "NOOOOOO!"

His scream died out as he literally exploded, a fiery ring twenty feet off the ground that expanded outward for at least a city-block, incinerating just about anything in the way, including his own teammate, Slipstream, who was too stupid to get away from her boyfriend.

"Five and six," Buddy said as he went airborne again. "Now that just leaves...ah." He had one of his gauntlets deflect a large piece of concrete that was thrown at him. "There you are, Montoya. I knew you crawled under rock when the fight started, but I wasn't expecting you to throw it at me."

The leader of T2M Americas snarled as he charged Buddy. Buddy actually felt some of the force of the blow when Gila connected, knocking him through the remains of an office building before he came to a landing three blocks away.

"Shit," Buddy muttered, "I think he's pissed." He shrugged as he kicked the ZP gauntlets to full power. "Well, guess that means I can stop playing." He waited until Gila charged through the wall of a ruined building, then brought both gauntlets up, catching the attacking nova in a field. "Damn, don't you think you're taking this too personally?"

"They...were..my..friends," Gila managed to choke out.

"Bullshit," Buddy said. "A relatively new team of unknowns thrown together and you really didn't give a shit about them. They were highly paid posers, just like you. None of whom have actually been in a real fight, especially you." A simple flick of the wrist and Gila was sent across the street and into parked armored truck, his body leaving a shaped indentation in the vehicle's side panel. "This is a long cry from the XWF, Monty. Unlike those staged conflicts, this one's real." He had the field toss Montoya up high before slamming him through a bank.

Buddy walked towards the front of the bank. "What's the matter, Montoya? Where's the cocky piece of shit who owned the Monday night main event on N!CHannel?"

The sound of grinding metal was the only warning Buddy got before a bank vault door came hurling out of the opening. Buddy deflected it with a wave of his arm, the field sending the vault door down the street where it landed on a a group of people trying to flee the scene. With his gauntlet, he caught Gila in mid-leap.

"That's really pathetic," he said, shaking his head, bringing the other gauntlet into play, forcing Gila's arms and legs apart. "The great Montoya, former XWF superstar, token brick and leader of a team of glorified wannabes."

To Gila's credit, and Buddy's surprise, the hero was defiant and actually spat at him, the mixture of blood and saliva splattering on Buddy's force-field before sizzling away a second later.

"And that," Buddy chuckled, "was an act of futility." He spread his arms apart, the multi-segmented field mirroring his movements, ripping Gila's body in half. There was a brief scream, followed by a weird "splutch" noise before blood, organ tissue, and other assorted remains splattered across the area.

Buddy shook his head as he discarded the two halves of the now deceased hero. "And that," he sighed, "was just me being a sadistic bastard."

* * *

James never considered himself a religious man, but everything he experienced in the last several minutes had him actually wonder if God was pissed at the world. He made his way towards the battle, at first trying to avoid being seen, but that idea was scrapped when the unknown attacker began to cause massive collateral damage across the town.

_No...this wasn't caused, he deliberately inflicted it._

James was no stranger to this tactic; using collateral damage as a way to strike fear into enemies had always been a sound strategy and one he used as the monstrous Geryon.

_But even the Teragen didn't do damage on this kind of a scale. Sure, the Utopia-friendly media would accuse us of that, but we never did anything like this...at least not yet anyway._

He found himself burrowing out of rubble caused by the devastation only to buried by more rubble when he saw the T2M nova called Skyburn literally explode, sending an enormous ring of super-heated plasma that incinerated anything that happened to at the same altitude he was at. The explosion took out the third floor of any buildings within a couple blocks radius of the blast, most of them being high-rises and skyscrapers that collapsed, showering the area with more debris and burying anyone unlucky enough to be there.

There was no doubt this armored psycho was responsible for the killing of the novas in San Francisco. And while he didn't think to highly of Team Tomorrow, they were novas, his own kind...and this animal was slaughtering them.

After plowing his way through the debris of what had been an apartment building, James followed the noise of the battle and the mocking voice of the man behind this, pausing for a moment when he saw the mutilated remains for the nova known as Feral. Though no stranger to violence and having seen his share of dead bodies, he found himself swallowing back some bile.

_Who the hell is this bastard?_

Then he heard a man's scream, followed by a sickening sound of something splattering. He rounded the corner and saw the armored figure with his back to him, walking away and leaving Gila's corpse behind.

"And that," the armored figure said, the digitized vocalizer on the helmet not even hiding the disgust in the wearer's voice, "was just me being a sadistic bastard."

Despite his rage, James managed to bite back the snarl as he charged the armored man from behind.

* * *

_**Unidentified Quantum Signature...**_

"What the Fu-" Buddy was hit hard from behind and sent flying through a couple buildings before landing in an intersection. Even with the protective field, he still felt the force of the blow in his back and he was certain he heard a couple ribs crack. In fact, landing flat on his back on the concrete was less painful than the blow he received. The HUD screen in his helmet flickered for a moment and he was wondering why he didn't detect the signature of the attacker, but the answer to that came in the form of the residual quantum energy that still saturated the area after Skyburn exploded.

He managed to come to that conclusion in less than a second, which was a good thing because he spent the next second rolling out of the way as something huge and ugly came down out of the sky and landed right in the space he had previously occupied. He rolled to his feet to see a nine foot tall monstrous creature with scales embedding its fist in the ground where his chest would have been if he hadn't moved out of the way.

_**Target Identified...Geryon**_

_**Warning...High Level Quantum Signature**_

_No shit,_ Buddy thought. He hadn't planned on facing off against the Teragen, let alone on their heavy hitters like Geryon. He then looked at the small countdown display at the lower corner of the HUD.

_Then again I won't have to. Only have a few more minutes left._

"Well, well, well," he said, hoping he kept the concern out of his voice. "Wasn't planning on the Terragen showing up." He fired a pulse of ionized energy from his left ZP gauntlet. "But hey, I don't mind adding you to my list of kills."

The bolt of energy hit Geryon in the chest, throwing him down the street and crackled across the massive nova's body for a few seconds.

* * *

James remembered the first time, back before he erupted as a nova, he had felt pain similar to this. It was at a football game in Leeds and a riot broke out between fans. To be fair, he was part of it and he actually enjoyed being part of community the world media had dubbed "soccer hooligans", but that was until one of the other hooligans on the other side doused him with beer and then zapped his wet body with a tazer repeatedly, it felt like he was being burned and someone had spilled sulfuric acid on his body.

This was about a thousand times worse. Whenever he "powered up", he could feel the quantum energy coursing through his body, that M-R node in his brain that channeled the quantum that gave him his monstrous form and abilities, it was like a constant adrenaline rush. Except, now that energy seemed to rip through his body, causing him to convulse for a few seconds. If he wanted to find the perfect metaphor, it was as if someone had dipped all his nerve endings in molten lava. And while the pain only lasted a few seconds, it still fucking hurt!

"Damn," the armored figure said as he approached where James had landed, but stopping at least a dozen feet away. "You're body's kicking out a shitload of quantum energy there, pal. I'm sure it makes you a bad-ass in the nova community, but it's a fucking handicap when dealing with me."

James didn't say anything. Instead, he rolled up into a couch and then lunged forward at the man. It only took a moment and, under normal circumstances, he would have had his hands around the target's throat and proceeded to rip their head off. He was only inches away from the man when he was suddenly wrapped in a blue field and held in place.

"What the-ARRRRGH!" He screamed as he felt that searing pain throughout his entire body.

"Ow," laughed his tormentor. "Sounds like it hurts like a bitch, here...lie down."

James was suddenly thrown through a city bus.

"No, wait, not there...how about over here?"

He was then picked up and catapulted through a storefront.

"Nope, on second thought, back out here is good."

The invisible field picked him up and brought him close to his attacker, but he found that he couldn't move. The pain had subsided, but his whole body had gone numb.

"Who...are..you?" he managed to choke out.

"Well, I could say that I'm your worst nightmare, your nemesis, the man who will annihilate your kind off the face of the earth, but that would be rather cliché, don't you think?" The armored man leaned forward, his helmet's visor only inches from James' face. "But you can call me Gabriel."

"I'll call...you...dead." To emphasize his point, James actually managed to bring his left arm up and tried to grab Gabriel, only to be awarded with another wave of searing pain.

Gabriel shook his head and chuckled. "Shit, Geryon, that's fucking impressive. Even Mr. Incredible couldn't move in my little Quantum field." He paused for a moment, his helmeted head tilted to one side as if he were considering something. "You know, I don't know why they call it Quantum energy instead of Zero Point Energy...I always thought that sounded cooler. Not that it matters, I can manipulate quantum, and the fact that your body kicks out so much of it pretty much allows me to control it."

James' eyes narrowed. "Really?" he asked as a desperate plan suddenly went through his head. "Using my own quantum against me?"

"Wow, you're not as dumb as you look," Gabriel snickered. "That's pretty much it."

"Good to know," James said. He knew it was a desperate attempt, maybe suicidal, but it was now or never. He concentrated for a moment, willing his body to "dorm down".

* * *

The field surrounding Geryon suddenly went down. With no quantum energy there for his ZP gauntlets to immediately manipulate, the field went down, releasing its hold on the wiry shirtless young man wearing tattered jeans.

_**Warning...field recalibration required...**_

"What the fuck-" was all Buddy got out as the other man swung at him, suddenly morphing back into his monstrous form before his fist connected to Buddy's helmet.

Even with the personal field, the sheer force of the blow actually snapped his head to the side.

_**Warning...protective shell breached...**_

That was confirmed as the visor on his helmet cracked, robbing him of his HUD. His body flying through two buildings was another clue that things weren't going well. He actually felt the impact on his spine when he landed. The protective field was still working, but it was weakening. If it wasn't working, he'd have been a greasy smear on the street by now.

He brought up his right arm and checked the small display screen on the gauntlet as he stumbled back to his feet. _Okay, almost time to go, those missiles should be here soon._

Unfortunately for Buddy, that was enough time for Geryon to catch up to him. Before he could bring up another field, Geryon had actually managed to grab Buddy by the right arm and slam him into the ground.

"Ow," Buddy managed to wince.

* * *

"Talk and I'll end it quickly for you," James growled. He could feel a slight burning sensation in his hands where he gripped the man's arm, but he could tell the field was starting to collapse. "Who are you? Why are you doing this?"

"Well, to be honest, killing an entire T2M cell and destroying the lemmings of Mexico City dumb enough to worship Utopia...it's going to look good to my clients."

"Clients?" James repeated. "Who are you working for?"

"Sorry, can't do that," Gabriel chuckled. "That would be a violation of my ethics."

"You killed an entire team of novas and a bunch of baselines for what...an audition?"

"Actually, it was mostly for shits and grins, but what do you care? After all, you Terats don't care much for Utopia, and the baselines," Gabriel shrugged at him, "the world can do with a few million less of them, don't you think? After all, they're just monkeys, right?"

James didn't like where this conversation was headed. True, he didn't care for the novas who, in his opinion, "sold out" to Utopia, but he never wanted to destroy them. As for the baselines, he didn't care about them either and didn't matter if any died as part of any "collateral" damage, especially if they deliberately stood in his way.

But this was different, he could feel it. This was more on the scale of mass genocide, and this prick was claiming it was "mostly for shits and grins".

_Not anymore._

James grinned at him as he tightened his grip on Gabriel's right arm. "You're right, they're just monkeys, but I'm sure they won't mind if I rip various appendages off your body." He then pulled on Gabriel's arm, ignoring the burning pain his hands and laughing as he ripped the man's arm off.

"SHIT!" Gabriel screamed as his arm was ripped off his body, then he started laughing.

It took James a moment to realize what was going on until he noticed the sparks coming from the severed arm and that it was a cybernetic limb. Then it suddenly exploded, knocking him off his feet.

"Well," he heard Gabriel say, "that was rather anticlimactic."

James blinked a couple times to get his vision to clear from the bright flash of the explosion. He saw Gabriel, now missing one arm, airborne, floating several feet above him. "This isn't over, you bastard!" James roared as he threw a chunk of concrete at the battered figure who calmly dodged the attack.

"Actually, it is," Gabriel said, pointing up at the sky. "Enjoy the show." He then shot further up into the sky, heading east.

Then he saw something else, three objects coming from the east. His eyes widened in horror as he realized what he was looking at.

_Oh god! Missiles!_

He watched them soar overhead, passing his his location as they headed for the heart of the city. Then he heard the impact as they hit. For a moment, he was expecting to see a bright flash and something along the lines of a nuclear explosion, but that never came. Instead, he felt something deep within the ground, three distinct, but muffled explosions...then nothing.

"Okay," he said, "not what I was expecting."

Then he heard a rumbling, and then felt it, as the ground suddenly rippled around him before exploding. He could hear people screaming and the rending of steel as other buildings began to topple.

_Oh bloody hell, the fucker started an earthquake!_

A shadow suddenly fell over James, causing him to look up just in time to see a ten story building coming down on him.

"Oh Shit!" he screamed before the building fell on him, burying him as the rest of the city started to tear itself apart.


	3. We Havin' a Revival Meetin'YeeHaw!

Disclaimer: Don't own Aberrant, White Wolf does. Don't own Incredibles, Pixar/Disney does. Come to think of it, I don't own any of the characters who show up at all in this particular installment. "Land of Confusion", performed by Disturbed, originally written by Phill Collins and Genesis (damn, talk about recycling oldies!).

Author's Notes: Okay...here we go, the final part of Countdown. As always, I just want to say "Thank You" to all of you who took the time to read this and stayed around for the ride. Not much to see here, just a tiny little "on-the-spot" monologue from our favorite psychotic weapons designer. For all you Buddy fans out there, I hope you enjoyed this. I wanted to make him a "big-league" threat and I think it's safe to say he's now up there. As usual, comments, criticisms, and even threats are welcomed. Okay...maybe not the threats...but I'll laugh at them.

* * *

_Flash Point – Noun _

_The lowest temperature at which the vapor of a combustible liquid can be made to ignite momentarily in air._

_The point at which eruption into significant action, creation, or violence occurs. _

_In international relations, a flash point is an area or dispute that has a strong possibility of developing into a war. As with the laws of physics, for something like that to occur, pressure and heat have to be applied. In this new world we live in, there is plenty of pressure and heat provided from both sides, both nova and baseline alike. _

_Most of us, I would like to believe, would do anything we can to avoid such a situation. However, there are some of the baseline community who want to see this happen and, sadly, there are some of my fellow Teragen members who would also want this to come to pass._

_Sadly, while I know most of the world is filled with sane and rational beings, I know that all it will take is just actions of a few to ignite. Some would claim it's for 'the greater good', but I feel that those people who actually start that fire, are more interested in watching the world burn than assisting in any cause._

_The numbers don't lie, the equations are solid, the logic is sound. No matter what we do to stave off the inevitable, it won't stop it._

-From the Private Journal of Pedro Santiago, "The Mathematician"

* * *

_**Somewhere in Texas**_

Buddy took a moment to compose himself before he walked out onto the stage. Already, he could hear people chanting "Gabriel, Gabriel, Gabriel" and he couldn't help smiling at that. He had chosen that name as a private joke because he was dealing with the Michaelites, he didn't intend for it to become his new identity.

And yet, only a couple weeks later, the name and his actions catapulted him to rock-star status among the thousands of members within the movement. Yes, there were members of the leadership who didn't trust him, but most of the rank and file members saw him as a hero. Within hours of his attack on Mexico City, various Michaelite compounds were already preaching sermons about him and how he was sent by the Lord in their time of need.

_Damn, had I known that I would get this kind of momentum so quickly, I would have given up trying to be hero and taken up religion sooner._

He managed to stifle a chuckle at that thought. A large screen had been erected behind the stage, showing the images of his handiwork in San Francisco and Mexico City. In the background, a somber version of "Amazing Grace" was being played as various images taken from news clips and raw video footage of those events played across the screen. It was surreal to hear a normally uplifting song being played in such a way and being used as a soundtrack for his accomplishments, but he liked it…and so did the members of the congregation.

It was a relatively small gathering in this old building that had once been a Unitarian church until the Michaelites had acquired it. Maybe fifteen…sixteen hundred people, mostly standing room only, were there. Then there were the other Michaelite compounds that were receiving this sermon via encrypted satellite transmission and on-line. All told, at least half a million people were watching this from other locations such as this and who knew how many countless others would be watching this on-line via streaming video.

Obviously, Piper spared no expense when setting this gathering up and Buddy appreciated that. He felt it was kind of odd that, given the devastation that hit the world in the last couple weeks, he was in a building where spirits were high and people were celebrating.

_Then again, I was responsible for most of the devastation, but the sheep here don't have to know about that. Although, I'm sure some of the real die-hard fanatics are probably saying the Indian Ocean disaster was God's will…but hey, whatever works!_

As the music ended, Buddy performed a last-second check of the ZP gauntlets he wore on each forearm. Like his newly rebuilt cybernetic arm, he had redesigned them to be sleeker and more functional. They could be easily concealed by wearing a jacket, but he decided not to wear one. Instead, he stood there, wearing cargo pants, a t-shirt and work boots. He had considered putting an artificial flesh-skin cover over his arm, but dismissed that idea almost immediately because it would ruin the image he tried to project.

_Besides, didn't have time to "flesh" it up, it's been a busy week. Let them see the arm and the scars…it just adds to the image. _

And what an image it was. He knew that he probably appeared to be some sort of resistance leader, especially with the shoulder-holster and the slight muscular physique he had acquired while working out in the prison gym. Overall, he was certain that his image intimidated his audience but, combined with the images displaying the devastation he had brought down on San Francisco and Mexico City, also inspired a sense of awe.

_And look at them…they're so giddy, so full of anticipation. This is going to be fun._

He smiled slightly before taking a neutral expression as he stepped onto the stage. He intentionally avoided getting behind the podium, instead standing off to one side. A quick tap on the small headset he wore activated the headset's tiny microphone. He waited several more seconds as he was hit with a loud roar of approval from the mass of people in front of him.

_Oh god…this is awesome. Now I know how those idiot pro-wrestlers on television feel like._

He closed his eyes and struck a small pose, as if he were momentarily basking in the energy being felt in that facility. Finally, after he had motioned for them to quiet down with a wave of his arms, the crowd went silent.

_Better make it good, Buddy, or they will eat you alive._

"My friends," he said quietly, in a deliberate awkward moment, as if he were uncertain. "My brothers…my sisters," he continued, before pausing for a moment to look down at the ground and close his eyes as he took a deep breath and…

"Mah fellow human bein's!" he drawled.

His sudden loud proclamation ignited another roar of approval that was more deafening than the first. He allowed himself a small chuckle as he waited for the crowd to calm down.

"Oh, what a week it's been," he said, drawing some chuckles from the audience. "First it was San Francisco, then it was Mexico City, and now, here I am, taking a breather and talking to you. No, I'm not here to bask in the glow of your adoration…I mean, let's be honest. Until this last week, it's a safe bet that all of you gathered here and around the world had never even heard of me."

There were some hesitant murmurs in the crowd, but Buddy ignored them, continuing on.

"In fact, let me ask you this one important question. Why are you cheering for me, a complete stranger who you had never even heard of until this moment? It's a fair question, right?" He pointed to some random man in the audience, a man in his late twenties or early thirties who looked like he worked as a mechanic. "You, the black haired guy…tell me, why do you cheer me?"

The man seemed to hesitate for a second.

"Aw, c'mon, it's okay, I'm not going to do anything to you, just answer the question."

"Well," the man said after some encouragement from his friends, "you killed a bunch of these freaks, made the world a better place."

His response got some cheers from audience and Buddy nodded, giving the man a tiny smile.

"Yes," Buddy said, "you could say that. And you people killed the Texas Tornado, but while I killed more novas, that doesn't make me different from you. The only reason for my accomplishment was my God given intellect and ability to build the tools needed."

_Never mind the fact that I'm actually a nova myself, but I'm not going to tell you sheep that._

Again, his words drew applause and cheers from the crowded sanctuary, but they started to die down as he gave them a somber look and shook his head.

"It's time to be honest, folks, I don't deserve your praise and you shouldn't be too proud of what you did to Texas Tornado. The only reasons we managed to accomplish what we've done is because they were complacent and we were lucky. Now I'm not trying to demean what we've done, but think about it. Until now, we…yes we, my brothers and sisters, were looked upon as a joke, branded as members of a 'lunatic fringe' by the false gods and their masters. They underestimated us, and we made them pay for it with their own blood."

Cheers erupted from the crowd and Buddy had to force himself to keep a serious expression on his face and not chuckle as he heard several "amens" in the crowd.

"But now," he continued, his somber tone obviously beginning to affect the crowd because the cheering had quickly faded, "the enemy knows they are being targeted. They know that we have declared war on them and they also realize that while we may pose the threat, they still wield greater power, because most of the world is asleep and willing to let them control it. Very soon, in fact, I'm guessing maybe within minutes of this little gathering being mentioned, the world media sucking up to Utopia will portray us as the 'evil enemy', as hate-mongers, as something that needs to be dealt with. And you can bet that Utopia and its puppets in the United Nations will pressure people in our own government and the rest of our country to rise against us because 'it is the right and just thing to do'."

He shook his head again. "Against you, good people who have lost their jobs because Project Utopia deemed what they do as being 'not friendly to the environment'."

Nods of agreement and more than several "amens" were heard through the auditorium again.

"Against you, good people who lost their jobs because a single Utopia backed nova can do the work of twelve 'baseline' human beings."

Soft applause started to ripple through the audience as he randomly pointed to people in the audience.

"Against you, and you, and you, and you, good people who don't live in the big Utopia sponsored cities and prefer to work instead of being lazy and letting Utopia determine what you do, what you believe, and how you and your children should live."

The applause got louder and more intense, along with some shouts of affirmation.

"Against you!" Buddy was now starting to shout, not only to speak over the growing storm of cheers and applause, but because he was getting fired up at his own words. "Good people who see the devil's own for what they are and are willing to make a stand!"

By now, the deafening roar was back, louder than before. For a moment, Buddy let himself get lost in the energy and enthusiasm, enjoying it, but not letting himself falter because he didn't want to lose his chance to manipulate where this momentum was headed. He waited patiently for the roar to die down again.

"It is written," he said after the crowd quieted down enough for him to continue, "that there would be trials and tribulations at the end before a final judgment will be made." He paused again, giving the crowd another somber expression. "There are some, even here among us, who believe that we should do nothing, that we have done all we can, and that we should let the judgment come to pass." He held up a hand, as if to quell an argument. "Don't hold that against them, because a lot of us felt that at some point, but I'm sure they never expected the end to happen like this…none of us did.

"Make no mistake, people, this is not just a trial…this is THE trial. This is OUR trial, OUR baptism of fire. The good Lord did not put us here to simply stand by and watch as the false prophets trample us down and force their way on us, oh hell no! This, good people, is where we make our stand and prove that we are not weak lambs to be led to the slaughter."

Once again, applause started to ripple through the sanctuary, building up momentum.

"This, good people, is where we prove ourselves worthy of the Lord's blessings and we are willing to fight for what we believe in."

More "amens" and at least one "hallelujah, preach it, brother," could be heard. Buddy, didn't bother to hide his smile, because now he was really enjoying this.

"However, I am not ordering you all to blindly march in and die for the cause. No, I am not one of those leaders who psych you up, then sit back and order you to march on. In fact, I'm not even a leader." He paused again, letting that last comment sink in for a moment. "I'm just a man, a mortal like you. One who has seen where this world is headed, doesn't like it, and is willing to fight. I am one man among many of you, with specialized talents and gifts given by the Lord, willing to give it all I've got and see this battle through the end.

"Compared to the rest of the world who stands against us, we are few. And yet, we very few are the ones whose cause is righteous, my brothers and sisters. Each and every one of us knows that the final war has come and we stand on the front line. For those who stand there with me are truly my brothers and sisters and, as it has been said before, if God stands with us, who can truly stand against us?"

To punctuate that last comment, Buddy thrust his fist up in the air, the ZP gauntlet on his right forearm firing off a blue bolt of energy that exploded in a dazzling display of blue lightning above the crowd, causing them cheer and chant even louder. On a programmed cue, the building's sound system kicked on and Disturbed's version of "Land of Confusion" exploded through the speakers.

Buddy raised his arms triumphantly as the crowd cheered and he smiled.

_Damn! This is a fucking rush!_

_

* * *

_

Three hours later, Buddy was once again standing on the stage in a now empty auditorium, tapping away on a lap-top that he had set up on the podium. He did a little bit of net-surfing and already saw that Viasoft's "LiveSearch" engine had registered the name "Gabriel" as being one of the top five searched topics. He checked Google and Yahoo as well and noted the same thing. A quick check of some of the various chat-rooms showed "Gabriel's Proclamation" (as it was called) was the subject of a lot of discussion. Some were even calling it the "Baseline's answer to Divis Mal's Null Manifesto".

He chuckled when he saw that. It's not every day that an on-the-spot monologue was suddenly turned into something epic.

_And all I did was bastardize pro-wrestling promos, Shakespeare, Churchill, and various right-wing nut-jobs off the radio. Shit…I really should have gotten into this years ago!_

"I'm glad you find this amusing," he heard someone say.

Buddy turned and saw the four main leaders of the Michaelites walking onto the stage. He merely shrugged, but didn't get rid of the smile. "Well, I have to admit, I did have a little fun with that speech, Horton."

Theobald Horton scowled at him. "Do you realize what you've done?" he asked.

"Hey, Piper here wanted me to rally the troops and I did," Buddy replied. "You're just pissed because it wasn't you out there doing it."

Horton snarled at him, but Buddy ignored him. Though the man was an ass, Buddy knew he wasn't dumb enough to attack him and ruin the movement's chance to get a hold of his hardware.

_Though killing and removing him from the gene-pool would be a service to humanity._

"By binding yourself to our cause, you have made us a target for Utopia and its allies." This time, it was Milo Arboghast that spoke. Buddy knew the man didn't like him, but carefully hid his hostility behind a cold mask of neutrality. "You have endangered us all with your theatrics, especially when video clips of your little 'sermon' go worldwide."

Buddy grinned at him. "I hope it goes worldwide…get the message out."

"But not like this," said Esteban Torano. "You went too fast too soon."

"Reluctantly," added Micah Piper, "I agree…we are not ready."

Buddy silently stared at them for a moment, then laughed and shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe you people! You're the ones who wanted to take the war to the novas, and I'm helping you do that."

"Yes, but you moved to quickly," Piper said. "And our movement is not ready for this."

"When is anyone truly ready, Micah?" Buddy asked him. "After all, you've been preaching that you're fighting the good fight for the Lord, but all of you are operating a loose-knit operation that can easily be taken down piece by piece. If I hadn't come along, how long do you think it would be before someone like Utopia or the Teragen decided to take you down? How long do you think you could actually last in a fight? And don't tell me that you took down Tornado, because let's face it, the man was a drunk and you ambushed him after he had a few kegs."

"And who the hell do you think you are?" Horton snapped. "You waltz in out of nowhere and think you can take over?"

Buddy shook his head; the grin never left his face. "Actually, I don't want to take over. You want to be preachers and leaders of your movement, that's fine. I'll just stick to killing novas. Speaking of your movement, that's one of your main problems."

"Care to explain that one?" Piper asked.

"You told me that I should rally the movement, but that's not what you need. You need an army, and that's what I was doing tonight, raising you one." Buddy reached over and removed a flash-drive from the laptop. He held it for a moment, looking as if he were reconsidering something, then handed it to Piper. "Your 'movement', Piper, is no longer a movement. Until tonight, you were looked upon as a joke, a loose-knit collection of radical bible-thumper rednecks and militia whack-jobs that nobody took seriously. That's all going to change."

"What's this?"

"That, Piper, is the records of several members of your group, all I have selected have military experience, seven of them specifically tagged because I can use them in a leadership and training capacity."

"And what do you intend to do with them?" Oddly enough, the question came from Torano, and he actually sounded curious instead of hostile.

"I told you, I intend to share my technology and provide you with an arsenal to carry on your crusade. These people have experience with small unit operations. Now that they're getting some decent hardware, we'll be able to take things up a notch." Buddy then shut down and closed up his laptop before turning to reface the others. "You see, gentlemen, I meant what I said, we're at war. You have taught that to your followers and now it seems like you yourselves are reluctant to follow your own teachings. I'm sure your followers would really hate it if you started to look like a group of hypocrites."

"Watch your tone, boy," Horton warned, "or I'll-"

"You'll what?" Buddy snapped back at him, cutting him off. "You think just because you're a 'leader'," he made imaginary "air-quotes" with his fingers when he said the word _leader_, "that you will probably order someone to take me down because I'm a threat to your 'movement'? Go ahead. The people who follow you know what I've done and you've taken great pains to point out my accomplishments to them, all the while making it look like you had helped orchestrate those attacks."

He smiled at them again.

"Get rid of me, and they might see me as a martyr betrayed by their own leaders."

Buddy studied the faces of the four men in front of them. Though Horton's face showed hatred, the fear in his eyes at Buddy calling his bluff was obvious. Torano also seemed concerned, but also curious. Arboghast's face was a cold mask of neutrality, but Buddy could see something cold and calculating in that man's eyes.

_Okay, there's something off with this guy...not sure what it is, but he's not a cowardly wuss like Torano and Horton. He seems willing to get his hands dirty, but also views me as a possible threat. Well...he's right, but I'm not going to tell him that._

It was Piper's reaction that caught Buddy off guard. The old man was actually laughing with real amusement.

"I have to hand it to you, Gabriel, you've done a very good job motivating the troops," Piper said. "My only concern is that your actions, and subsequent speech might attract attention and prompt retaliation that we might not be ready for."

Buddy thought about it for a second and nodded. "Understandable," he replied, "but I wouldn't worry too much about it. I have a few 'side projects' planned that will discourage certain governmental bodies from focusing too much attention on us."

"What kind of 'side-projects'?" This time it was Arboghast that asked the question.

Buddy chuckled and shook his head. "Relax, gentlemen, nothing to worry yourselves too much about. Let's just call it a 'gathering of essential resources'." He then turned and grabbed his laptop. He started to walk away, but stopped and glanced back over his shoulder. "Just remember, gentlemen," he said, his voice taking an icy tone of finality, "we're in this together now. As the old saying goes: 'United we stand, divided we fall'...it's your call."

The others said nothing as he walked away. It wasn't until he exited the auditorium that Horton spoke, his voice barely more than a whisper. "This is wrong," he said. "That man is insane."


End file.
